gameshowsfandomcom-20200213-history
List of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? sketches
This article lists recurring characters and sketches performed on the PBS game show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? which ran from 1991-1995. Clue Sketches On any given day, members of Rockapella might be dressed as giant ears of corn, or as The Beatles. Aside from providing the theme song for the show, Rockapella also supplied many of the sound effects and voiceovers. *'The Chief' (she always gave the first clue of the game in the first two seasons; in later seasons, she gave clues on any specific order (usually with extra evidence in her office or a call from her research friend Lemke)) *'The Chief's Fax Machine' (Entire Series) *'Song parodies' performed by Rockapella (Entire Series) *'Celebrity guests' (Entire Series) *'Nana Rap', an animated rapping grandmother who gave clues to Greg and the kids; Nana Rap was a fan favorite with the audience (always clapping in unison when she did her song). (Entire Series) *'The Word on the Street' - Greg hears chatter or someone calling him by name in the alley and walks out to find Rockapella. He asks them what the word on the street is, one of the band members--usually Scott Leonard, but the other 4 have each done this at least once as well--tells Greg the word, which is literally written on the street in front of them, and provides a related clue while the others provide background "mood" music. (They once acted out Homer's Odyssey when the Contessa was hiding in the Aegean Sea. (Entire Series) In some episodes one of five variations can occur: *#More than one Word on the Street *#A Number on the Street *#A Word Under the Street *#A Word Above the Street *#A word on something other than the street *Song parodies performed by the Acmettes (all played by Lynne Thigpen) (Seasons 3–5) *'The Stool Pigeon', a pigeon prisoner (Seasons 2–5) *'Sydney Greenpig' (Season 3) *'The Clue-Fish' (Season 3); Greg will pick up a newspaper before the show with the fish wrapped in it along with Rockapella's tune to the Contessa's jingle. After he shows the fish, he removes the paper from around fish to reveal info about the crook's whereabouts. *Animations featuring well-informed fish, particularly a green fish named Moe Pesci (pun on actor Joe Pesci) and an oyster by the name of Shelley (Seasons 1–2) *Cat rappers Bite and Scratch (Seasons 3–5) *Musician informants from different parts of the world (Often after they perform, Greg would either ask the Chief about their music, or ask yes/no questions to the musicians themselves about their music, and where the crook is, often ending with a question asking if they're robots, their music is a secret code, or if they're people in disguise, but the musician(s) would always disagree, and Greg would go with it)) (Entire Series) *'Prawn Wayne' – An animated shrimp. His name is a parody of actor John Wayne. (Seasons 3–5) *'Piranha' - An animated piranha (Seasons 3-5) *'Arnold Penguin' - An animated muscular penguin. His name and body is a parody of actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger. *'The ACME Fly' (Entire Series) (In Seasons 1–2, Greg would attempt to swat him, so as to make him give the clue; in Seasons 3–5, the Fly appeared in animation and simply gave the clue) *Agnes Acme, the Chief's great-grandmother and founder of ACME Crime Net (Season 1) *'The ACME Crime Net Computer' (Seasons 3–5) *The file cabinet right by the ACME Crime Net entrance door was loaded with clues. (Seasons 1–2) *A globe (similar to the file cabinet) (Seasons 1–2) *'The World-Band Radio' (Entire Series) *Greg's friend Pinch, the Word Queen of ACME Crime Net, who can contact Greg with telepathy. (Seasons 3–5) *'Crystal the Teenage Medium', a spiritual, blonde teenage valley girl. (Seasons 1–2) *'ACME Home $pending Net', hosted by a salesman named Joey Joey (played by Greg Lee) (Season 3) *'Asta', the big dog (Seasons 3–5) *In The Case of the Lifted Lines, the clue was given by X the Owl and Henrietta Pussycat from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, a scene from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, possibly because MRN and WITWICS both aired on PBS and were co-produced by WQED. Fred Rogers, the puppeteer of X and Henrietta, died the same year of Thigpen. *One episode features the two main characters from the popular Square One Television segment: Mathnet, possibly because SQTV aired on PBS like WITWICS, and David Yazbek, who co-wrote the theme song to WITWICS with Sean Altman, was a frequent writer on SQTV during the first season. *In Cats Nipped, Marc Summers joined Greg in the first clue of the 1st round. Summers was dressed in Greg's signature blue jacket, khakis, and Converse gym shoes. The connection is that Greg was one of the helpers on Summers' signature, Nickelodeon's Double Dare. *In The Return of Dracula's Castle, Dracula himself (portrayed by Barry Carl) provided the second clue and the final clue (as a bat) during the 1st round. When he enters, the same lighting and thunder from the Lightning Round flashed. *The Dying Informant, who provided valuable clues just as he (sometimes she) died multiple times (in the episode The Case of the False False Teeth, "The Voice" brought him back to life) (mostly portrayed by Scott Leonard) (Entire Series) *'The Roach Hotel' - Rockapella member Barry Carl portrayed a cockroach named Kafka. (Seasons 2–4) *'Althar', an alien (played by Barry Carl) who hosted a similar television series in a parallel universe. (Seasons 4-5) *Upstairs neighbor Mrs. Pumpkinclanger (Barry Carl in drag with a falsetto voice), who always complained about the noise downstairs before giving clues. (Seasons 1-4) *'My Buddy Buzz'. This very short television program features Greg and his friend Buzz (played by Barry Carl) who tells Greg about where the crook has gone. (Season 5) *'The Baby' (played by Barry Carl) (Seasons 2 and 3) *'Hank the Pigeon' (Season 1) *A mysterious voice with a pointing finger at the ceiling (often referred to as "The Voice", portrayed by Barry Carl). (Seasons 1–2) *There was an episode toward the end of the run where, in order to get a clue for the first part of the game, Greg Lee had to go backstage to talk with an "informant." He gets the clue from two random crew members who are arguing about shoe prints (nothing) behind the wall for the second round. This gave away some of the potential searching locations for Round 2 later in the show (The Wood Islands were one of the locations here). *'The Mysterious Woman' (played by Judy Tate) which parodied the 1940s detective movies. The Mysterious Woman's arrival was always heralded by smooth jazz music, and a fade from color to black and white, and Greg would suck on a lollipop in lieu of a cigarette. Greg would always have something that The Mysterious Woman would want, such as letters, and in order to get them, she had to give Greg and the Gumshoes a clue. The item would always turn out to be ludicrous; for example, after begging Greg for the letters, the Woman would be presented with one of three actual oversize letters: a J, an M, and a Q. The Woman would select the Q. This particular installment resulted in a funny exchange between the two when the Mysterious Woman heard the music that signaled her to leave: "That's my cue."..."No, that's my Q.". When leaving the office, she always says "I'll be back!" (Season 2) *'The Shadow' (played by Nicole Leach in Season 3, Laura Dean in Seasons 4-5). Greg would hear a foghorn, then go into the alley where the scene turned black and white and was coated with fog. The Shadow appeared and tried to give Greg the clue in code. Of course, Greg never remembered the code (due to many investigations), which irritated the Shadow and forced her to give the clue directly. In Seasons 4–5, Greg would meet the Shadow in delusion. (Seasons 3–5) *'The Plastic Diver Guy' (or P.D.G. for short), whose clues always ended in him getting destroyed (ala Dying Informant), with him saying "Greg, it's the ominous music!". Starting in late Season 2, after an incident with the broken fish tank where the Plastic Diver Guy resides, Greg would usually grab his snorkel and his scuba mask. (Seasons 2–5) *'ACME Man' (portrayed by Greg Lee) When it's time for ACME Man to provide a clue, the stage will go very dark, and an "A" appears on the floor. Then clips of ACME Man clues are shown, accompanied by his theme. Then, ACME Man does some heroic acts while talking to his friends at ACME about where the crook is. These clue sketches usually take place in a diner where ACME Man assists a customer simply known as "my friend" (played by Elliott Kerman) (Seasons 4–5) *'ACME Radio Net', when Rockapella sings "ACME Radio Net! More hits, more MUSIC!" Greg comes up to the ACME Crime Net computer (which is on Radio Net Mode), and shades were given to him on his eyes, and a 1940s microphone was given to him. And he talks to us about where the crook is in the style of a radio disc jockey. (Seasons 3–5) *The Private Eye, a mysterious-voiced detective with a blinking eye in lieu of a face. (Seasons 2–5) *Edwina (Lynne Thigpen), Greg's young neighbor. (Season 5) *'The Amazing Disgusting Glob (aka The Glob)', when Rockapella sings "The Amazing Disgusting Glob", the glob bounces around a stage, and hit the camera lens. Afterward, slime falls out of one of the knobs on the monitor, as Greg grabs the wastebasket to catch the slime. And then, the Glob emerges from the slime and tells Greg where the crook is. (Season 3) *'ACME World Music Video Net' – Predecessor to the Video Music Clues. (Season 2) *'Video-Music Clues' - When Rockapella sings "It's a Video-Music Clue,... Greg!" Greg was given a video clue chip from many forms the ACME Skateboard. And when he puts the chip into the monitor's chip reader, a video (accompanied by narration by either Greg, a Rockapella member, or the Chief) tells where the crook is. (Seasons 3–5) *'Handy Hancock the Hand Puppet', voiced by Greg (using Greg's right hand), with an Italian-like accent. This is one of the gimmicks that Greg used for his comedy career. (Season 1) *'The Scuba Diver' (played by Scott Leonard) (Season 1) *'The Horoscope'. When Greg picks up a horoscope from ACME Newsstand, he reads a horoscope, in which it tells him and the gumshoes where the crook is. (Entire Series) *'ACME Rap Net Agents. The three below served as audience warm-up hosts:' **'Rapper Chip Fu' (Season 3) **'Rapper Chris B.' (Season 4) **'Jeannie Matthews and Donna Baxter, the Misfits in the Attic' (Season 5) *'The ACME Canine Language Interpreter' (played by Scott Leonard) and his dog Fido, ACME Ruff Net agents (Season 2) *Sean Altman would enter as a delivery man with some food for clues. In Seasons 2 and 3, he would enter in a different food costume and deliver Greg some food (which he didn't order), as well a singing clue to the tune of "Yankee-Doodle." The audience initially isn't impressed, though. (Seasons 1-3) *Greg's father, Gus Lee, a retired private eye (Seasons 4–5) *'ACME Mail' – When Greg receives mail, he looks for evidence. Examples include a letter to or from someone who has a connection with the crook, or an informant from where the letter came from. (Entire Series) *'Phil the Barber' (played by Greg Lee), who, in the last aired episode (A Rodent Ran Through It) cuts Sean Altman's braids. (Seasons 4–5) *'Water Cronkite' (played by Greg Lee) of the Water Channel, who gets drenched with water each time he gives a clue. His name is a parody of Walter Cronkite. (Seasons 4–5) *'ACME Charades Net' – Greg and a member of Rockapella would play charades, with the Rockapella member acting as the clue. (Seasons 4–5) *Occasionally, when no other clue source was available, or something goes wrong with the controls or cameras, of which Greg hates, Greg would go backstage to "ACME Control Net" and ask the show's director, Dana Calderwood, what the next clue was. Once it had been given, Greg would often start meddling with the production equipment, often prompting Dana to tell Greg to go away. (ala Chief) (Entire Series) *Sometimes, when there was a technical problem on the set, Greg took a walk around the studio where he encountered people acting as the clues, his inner thoughts acting as a voice-over. (Seasons 3–5) The Chief's Office One sketch in the Chief's office was performed in each episode. This sketch always takes place between the Lightning Round and the Phone Tap, involving Greg and the Chief and was never used as a source of clues; it was just a simple comedy break. During the sketch, Greg and the Chief would always pause to either remind the gumshoes of the show's grand prize (Seasons 1 and 2) or to announce the rules and winners of the mail-in viewers' contest (Seasons 3-5). Season 1 *The Chief demands a report, after which she offers the Gumshoes a trip anywhere in the whole U.S., but Greg says they can't due to budget cuts. So she changes the offer to anywhere in the Lower Forty-Eight states and says "hey it's still a heck of a deal!" before sending Greg out. In a later variation she sticks Post-its on Greg with the names of the locations he's been, before demanding a report. *Greg routinely says the same things the Chief says or was about to say, making it clear that the Chief has become very "predictable" in what she says. *In lieu of a sketch, the Chief makes a direct offer to the Gumshoes, listing possible places in the continental U.S. they could pick, often with humorous names. *The Chief worries about being too hard on the Gumshoes, then sternly demands they capture Carmen. *The Chief is feeling rather glum, to the point of shedding tears. She is fearing that she will lose her job if Carmen is not caught. However, Greg makes it clear that the show's production crew, Rockapella, and the audience in the studio are all supporting Greg and the gumshoes' effort of catching Carmen. *The Chief's head falls off her body and rolls under the desk. Greg then strains heavily to grab her head and twist it back onto her neck. After he leaves the Chief's office, he tries pulling on his own head to see if it will fall off, but it doesn't, to Greg's relief. *The Chief pretends it's a nice day to make sure there are no "bugs" in her office, then writes down a promotion for the grand prize in her sketch pad, but when she notices that the bottom of her magnifying glass has a miniature amplifier, she writes down "GO AWAY!" in her sketch pad. Greg does so. *Greg and the Chief read a book on Gumshoe psychology. *Greg walks into the Chief's office to find her gone. Greg then sits behind the Chief's desk, and does a hilarious impersonation of her, poking fun at the "Photo Recon" segment seen after the first round of every show, describing places in the universe, where "Chief" Greg believes Carmen Sandiego is hiding out, such as "The sun: climate sunny, don't go barefoot.", "Black hole: roaches check in but they don't check out!", and "Carmen may be prowling around Pluto or hiding on Uranus. Search 'em both.", and finishes with his own take on the "ACME Triangle of Excellence (vigilance, dedication, courage) with "my left hand, my right hand, my thumbs." The Chief walks in, tells Greg that he's wasting time. After Greg leaves, the Chief then says "I don't sound like that.". *The Chief suffers a tension headache. *The Chief and Greg receive a rude message from Carmen Sandiego. ("Dear Chief, you are a chump. You and your Glum-Shoes still haven't found me or (Crook's Name). Catch me if you can. Regards to ACME Slime Net. Signed, Carmen Sandiego. P.S.: Nanny-nanny Poo-poo.") *The Chief contemplates retirement to do yam-farming with her cousin in the country, much to Greg's dismay. *The Chief complains that Carmen being out of jail has upset the "natural balance of things", demonstrating this by showing that the incorrect sound effects accompany certain actions. Greg, however, finds this amusing. *The Chief goes over the new ACME Crime Net budget, and Greg then talks about some taxed lunches (e.g.: Crab Alfredo, pizza), which, to Greg, is not social, but business. *The Chief complains about Carmen Sandiego not being captured, and shows Greg a newspaper headline pertaining to the situation: "ACME Crime Net Going Nowhere Fast". *The Chief grows two faces, so that they can be more alert about catching Carmen Sandiego. Greg sees this as a bit too extreme. Season 2 *Greg enters the office to find the Chief absent, but he finds a heartbreaking Dear Jane letter on her desk. ("Dear Chief, This is good-bye. I can no longer stand by while you devote all your time in capturing Carmen. What could've been will never be, because what could be can't be, if you won't be and I can't be. So good-bye. Signed, Horace. P.S.: I can never get used to calling you Chief.") But when the Chief enters the office, she claims that it's only an old letter she got in 2nd grade, but had written more important memo on the back, promoting the grand prize for the Gumshoe who captures Carmen Sandiego. *Some of the Chief's things are missing, but a strange hand returns it all to her, as well as things that decipher a promotion of the Gumshoes' grand prize for capturing Carmen Sandiego. *The Chief receives several orders from ACME Fruit-Net. *Greg enters the Chief's office to find that it's snowing inside. Greg is desperate to play in the snow with the Chief, but the Chief refuses, and tells him to go away again, so Greg furiously leaves the office, but upon slamming the door, more snow falls onto the Chief and her desk. In "What's What with Watts?" upon leaving the office, Greg is hit with a snowball from off-camera. Later, when The Chase starts, Greg gets hit again and chases the culprit (revealed to be Sean) across the entire set to throw a snowball back at him. All the other shows showed Greg wondering why it's snowing in the Chief's office but not in the main office. Then a cardboard of a sunshine appeared. *The Chief is suffering a headache, and Greg grows a third arm to help alleviate the pain. *The Chief is accidentally shrunk down to be under a foot tall (courtesy of ACME Shrinking-Things Net), prompting Greg to bombard her with "small" jokes. After she returns to her regular size, Greg leaves and comments that the Chief was just having a "small problem". *The Chief's office has an assortment of funny gadgets from ACME Do-Hickey-and-Gadget Net, one of which is a pair of X-ray spectacles, although the Chief denies that they work. *A contractor (played by Scott Leonard) accidentally does his underground work in the Chief's office. *The Chief and Greg demonstrate a portable alarm system that yells at someone who tries to steal anything. *After forgetting to pay the color bill, the Chief's office turns black and white. But after Greg restores the color he got from an animated clue, the 2 realize that the Chief forgot to pay the anti-helium bill. The Chief dismisses this, in a high-pitched voice. On two episodes, after Greg exits, he reminds himself to pay the anti-16-ton weight bill before the next day, until that certain weight falls, and Greg realizes that it's actually due today. After the Phone Tap, Rockapella mourns Greg's flattened body until Greg reveals that it's just a prop and he's okay. *The Chief's office is turned upside-down. She explains that she was so frustrated by Carmen's latest caper that she just "flipped". Greg inverts the office with a special knob, so the Chief turns right-side up-- but now Greg is upside-down. *Greg enters the office, and finds that things are slanted to the right. When Greg moves leftward, the office moves in the opposite direction. *The Chief's phone keeps ringing and she thinks there's nobody on the other end, but it turns out she was wearing extra-long ear plugs and couldn't hear the other person. *The Chief asks Greg for the latest on Carmen Sandiego---with the voice of a man. He turns out to be Conrad Knuckle, the joint director of another crime-fighting agency, E.M.C.A. ("ACME" spelled backward), who takes over the Chief's body and offers a tour of Mueller's Meat Company in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin to the gumshoe who captures Carmen. Greg, however, makes him reconsider by changing the offer to the way ACME Crime Net does, and thus, Conrad agrees. To get the old Chief back, Greg hits her in the shoulder with a squeaking toy hammer (and must hit himself as well as he talks with the voice of a woman leaving the Chief's office). *The Chief is unavailable, due to classified business, and leaves Greg voicemail options, the last one in which the Chief offers to "set Greg up with her gorgeous cousin Gladys", of which Greg chooses, but instead, he gets the same "Go away" order from the Chief, and hangs up, so he dials Information to try to get Gladys' number on his own, but the assistance operator just tells him to go away, too, and thus, Greg does. Season 3 *While celebrating the anniversary of the day they met, Greg and the Chief recall the time they met, back when Greg was a delivery man who moonlighted as a punk rocker. After delivering an envelope to the Chief containing the contest rules, she offers Greg a job, which he accepts on the condition that she also hire his bandmates (who aren't really punk rockers but rather an acapella group). *The Chief's office is turned into Grand Central Station, filled with racing commuters and a giant clock. *Every time anybody says "Carmen Sandiego", ping-pong balls fall on the Chief. After they both do the contest rules, the Chief has Greg sit down to check for a squeak in her chair while she shouts "Carmen Sandiego!", but nothing happens. When Greg leaves, the Chief sits back down and more balls fall. After Greg exits the office, when he finishes his Phone Tap introduction, the balls fall on him. *The Chief has requested to have her head rid of excess memory. When Greg finds a record of Mister Rogers songs in her memories, the Chief quickly tells him to go away out of embarrassment, then requests that she keep it, and she sang a portion of the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood theme song, which is titled as "It's a Wonderful Day". In "Come Back With That Kibbutz, Toots", when Greg leaves the office, he sees that he is now wearing Mister Rogers' iconic sweater, and he screams directly into the camera, before running back into the office, and coming out in his normal clothes. *Greg finds the Chief's new portable invisibility zone (complete with its own refrigerator, a CD player, and air conditioning). After he exits the office, he has an invisibility zone of his own, from which he retrieves a soda. In one variation, he is still invisible as he leaves the Chief's office, but fades back into view as the Phone Tap begins. *Show scheduling goes haywire, causing the Chief and Rockapella to completely miss their cues until Greg sets things straight. *The Chief has an ACME Fortune Teller Foldie-Thing. She asks Greg to pick a number, and a sort of meat or color twice. One was for the contest. The other states "You and your partner will dance the Polka, and then, you'll turn and yell "Chocolate Waffles, Chocolate Waffles" to each other, and then, he will immediately leave the office". After that, the Polka music starts, and the Chief and Greg dance to that music and yelled the magic words. In addition, they scream. Then Greg leaves the office. On two episodes of the show, after Greg exits the office, he screams. *Greg builds a house of cards that seems indestructible-- until he shuts the door behind him. *The Chief and Greg pass the "10-second flu" between each other. *The Chief has expected a salary increase, but instead, she gets a huge piece of celery on her desk (without dip). *Greg and the Chief play a highly unorthodox game of chess. *The Chief's desk runs out of gas. Greg fills it up while the Chief promotes the contest, after which she "drives" her desk away. *Greg and the Chief have their snack break and are forced to trade, as it's Trade Day (which Greg didn't make the rules about). The Chief is forced to give up her delicious mushroom meal for Greg's questionable sandwich. After the contest rules and their snack, the Chief is then forced to trade her French pastries with Greg's cheap dessert, and Greg exits while the Chief decides to trade Greg's dessert with Lemke's. As for Greg, Rockapella trades him and each other out of the pastries, but Greg sneakily trades them back to him before going to the Phone Tap. In another version, Lemke's hand swipes the pastries from Greg as he leaves the office. *Greg accidentally pulls a plug, causing the office to spring a leak (what the audience saw was the scene gradually getting smaller). *The Chief is made to sign her paperwork in increasingly-ridiculous ways. *The Chief finds herself unable to say what she means; she can only say the opposite. Greg discovers the Chief's polarity switch and changes it from negative to positive, but also discovers her speed switch that can make her move and speak fast forward or in slow motion. *The Chief asks Greg for change, and he shows her some unusual coins, one of which has Millard Filmore with the contest rules as a motto on it. Another has Ozzy Osbourne with a Latin motto "Gregorious scramous outous", (translations: "Greg, scram out", "Greg, go away") on it. *Greg brings the Chief a bowl of popcorn and finds her examining a certain kernel known as the Magical Popcorn Kernel of Hebrador, that grants its holders three wishes. Greg wishes for "a big 'ol stack of Sgt. Croc comics," which magically appear. The Chief, happy with Greg's wish, but unhappy about the clutter in the office, wishes they could have appeared somewhere outside - the comic books are transported, literally, outside, and a car crash is heard. After talking about the contest, Greg accidentally drops the kernel into the bowl of popcorn, and has to keep making wishes on individual kernels until the wish is granted. The first two kernels are wrong, and each eats a piece of popcorn. On Greg's third wish - "I wish the Chief had a beard" - the wish is granted and Greg, oblivious to this, eats the kernel only to discover that the Chief has in fact grown a beard. *The Chief has just received an ACME Chrono-Modifier, which lets one travel to anywhere in time. Greg suggests that they travel back to yesterday, and so the two of them are sent back in time to the Chief's office from 24 hours earlier. Greg is enthusiastic, but the Chief isn't as nothing has actually changed since yesterday and they return to the present. After the contest, Greg asks to visit yesterday tomorrow, but the Chief tells him that he'll just end up in the present again and Greg leaves the office in disappointment. As he comes out, the Gumshoes at the podiums are initially seen as something else (such as clones of Greg or creatures in wacky costumes) until Greg clears his head and they appear as normal again. *The Chief is having her brain cleaned up due to it being so cluttered, but forgets about the home contest and Greg does it for her, and when Greg sees a Mr. Rogers album in her memory piles, Greg laughs at her, causing the Chief to snatch it away from him and tell the person cleaning up her memory to put it back as Greg leaves her office. She then sings the Mr. Rogers theme as Greg walks out of her office while whistling the tune, and upon realizing he was not wearing his usual blue suit, and instead wearing a red cardigan similar to Mr. Rogers, Greg screams and runs back into the chief's office and he is changed back into his blue suit. Season 4 *The Chief promotes her new snack, Chief's Chewy Chocolate Cherry, and Greg ultimately counters by promoting his new snack, Greg's Gooey Gumshoe Gumdrops. *Greg and the Chief watch one of few movies that the Chief had rented from the local video store, but are due back on that day. The movie they watch is entitled: "Frou-Frou, Come Home". *A golfer (portrayed by Scott Leonard) practices his swing on the Chief's desk. *Greg tries to take advantage of a substitute chief, Mr. Schwemphf, in order to get out of taking an exam. *The Chief has gotten a promotion and is packing her things up until Greg calls her boss, who tells her that she can stay since Greg is temporarily the Chief. By the time Greg leaves the office, he sees Pinch taking over as the host and the two have a talk during the Phone Tap. *Greg and the Chief farm pretzels on the Chief's desk. *The Chief gives Greg a pop quiz on ACME Crime Net and how the show is done, ending with a question on how many Gumshoes that had appeared on the show. Greg answers 738 (which is correct), but the Chief claims it's 735, but Greg gives her the reason why her answer was wrong: 3 celebrities had teamed up with Gumshoes at the start of season 2, and thus, Greg has passed. (In reality, however, there had been only 737 Gumshoes up until then, since Tahare Campbell appeared twice). *The Chief has a new gadget known as the ACME Press-On Fingerprints of the Fabulously Famous (a minor spoof of the 80s & 90s parting gift Lee Press-On Nails), which Greg also has. Greg shows her how it works by pressing on Joe Montana's fingerprints, then successfully throws a football and scores a touchdown. The Chief is so impressed, she decides to press on the fingerprints of Evander Holyfield and tries to fight Greg, but he has already left, and she accidentally punches herself back into her seat. After Greg exits the office, he introduces the Phone Tap in the style of Wheel of Fortune's letter turner, Vanna White. *While the Chief is asleep, Greg finds out that she's having an out-of-body experience, who is also having the same thing. *The Chief has singing ants in her office, who take some of her things. After Greg left, they even take either the set or a camera. *Greg goes into the Chief's office and finds a bag of food. He begins eating it, the Chief comes in and reveals it's dog food. Greg continues eating, and after he leaves he is seen walking up to a fire hydrant, dressed as a dog. Season 5 *Greg and the Chief are making their soups for the annual Acme soup cook off. It's Greg's first time in the cook off and first timers never win according to the Chief. The Chief is making a vegetable bean soup, while Greg makes "industrial gumbo", which consists of: chopped squash, a harmonica, grated shoe rubber, pencil shavings, and armpit sweat. The ingredients gross out the chief. Then the judge arrives to pick up their entries. After Greg leaves, the Chief takes a taste of Greg's revolting soup and to her surprise, it tastes really good. * An earthquake occurs in the Chief's office, but it turns out to be an earth "quack". There happens to be a giant duck inside the center of the Earth, so they have to open a door and feed the duck to sleep. While they do this, a British historian (Barry Carl) cuts in and tells the audience that the center of the Earth does not really have a giant duck in it, but the truth of it being made of gases and minerals simply isn't as funny. *Freshness inspectors (played by Scott Leonard and Barry Carl) smell everything in the Chief's office to make sure it meets standards. They are about declare the entire office fresh, until they get a whiff of Greg's tie. *The Chief's desk has a thistle on it, and Greg removes it, and it is revealed that the desk has moving legs. *The Chief spends $900,000,000 on what she thinks is a Bruce Lee costume, but it turns out to be a Greg Lee costume. *Greg and the Chief now have background music and set it to fit their moods. However, they decide that Rockapella is better and briefly dance to their trademark scat-singing before resuming the show. *The Chief is unusually stressed out, so Greg examines her and ends up advising her to pop some bubble wrap, which surprisingly does the trick. *The Chief has a device that can shrink things 1%. *The Chief turns into a huge steel can of peaches. *The Chief has an electricity generator powered by a windmill. Greg warns her on what would happen when the wind settled, and sure enough, it did. *Greg shows the Chief one of his new gadgets: "The Breakfast Club", which heavily guards the Chief's breakfast. *Greg and the Chief dance "The Pongalusi" in the office. *Greg and the Chief use a switch device to change the camera angle of the Chief's office while the directors were away. Eventually, Greg starts to take advantage of it, zooming into the Chief's face, then zooming out to a full shot of the office, then a shot of the set, with props and the cameramen included. Then, Greg presses the zoom out button to zoom out into space. *The Chief's chair goes missing, so she and Greg turn to the Chair Man for assistance. Rockapella's Voiceovers Rockapella is the show's house band. Not only they did the theme song, the also supplied the sound effects. Some of the sound effects, the band did include: *"Rockapella!" during the beginning of season 4 (5 episodes), after Greg says where they're back from (most likely a local gig) or Greg describes them in some of season 4. In the rest of season 4, and all of season 5, he said "They're with me every day." In the very last episode, A Rodent Ran Through It, instead, Rockapella (dressed like clowns) would moan for help. *"National Geographic World!" after Greg says "All of our answers have been verified by National Geographic World.". - used from the second season and on. *"Oooooooooooooohhhh, The Chase!" when this segment of the show was played accompanied when Greg tells the gumshoes that the crook has left the last location visited and tells them to pick up the Chase. *A fanfare, (later preceded by "You've won!" starting in Season 2) when a gumshoe found all three items in the jailtime challenge. Rockapella also made that fanfare in the first season when the winning gumshoe captured Carmen. In Season 3 episodes, Rockapella said different phrases instead of "You've won!" such as, for example: "Babaloo!", "Yes, indeedy-doo!", "Stay!", or "BINGO!!". Or they just say "You've won" in other languages. *The "think music" for making wagers ("How much you gonna risk?") and the sleuth deciding what trip he wanted to take if he won ("Where do you wanna go?"). *The background music during the Chief's reading of the consolation prizes for the eliminated gumshoes. *The background music as five winners of the contest are revealed in Season 3 and beyond. *The background music as the Chief, Greg, and the gumshoes travel to the final location in Seasons 3 and 4. *The background music as Greg and the gumshoes modem themselves to the final location in the final season. *The music accompanying the sleuth moving to the map before the bonus game after the Chief says "Let's go to the map!" ("Take (sleuth's name) to the map!" in Season 1). *The contest music for the bonus round. *The phrase "Let's get packin'!", preceded by "Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaa!" in the 1st and 5th seasons, after the trip reveal with a successful bonus win. *"The LOOT", "The Warrant" (sung), (crook's name) in the second round as they were uncovered, and "(crook's name)'s in jail." (Sometimes the " 's " is not said, and Rockapella will just say "in jail!") after the winner arrested him/her. In some episodes of the first season, Rockapella began singing a silly phrase instead of saying "The LOOT" as it was uncovered, such as "Punctious Pipeline!" when the stolen item was the Alaska Pipeline, or "Lascaux Van Gogh!" for the Lascaux cave paintings from Montignac, France. They sang something different every time the loot was revealed on the board. During some longer rounds, the singers poked fun at how long it was taking the contestants to find the items. During the earlier Season 1 episodes, they usually just do sound effects or generic phrases such as "Brrrr!", "Fore!", or "Aloha!". On the 2nd Season episode, "The Immigration Station Perpetration", the group said "The LOOT" by the end of the 2nd round (long after they had stopped regularly using it). On another 3rd Season episode, "Roaring Rodent Road Show", when Wonder Rat was revealed behind the Greco-Roman museum in Alexandria, Egypt, the group mistakenly said "Taken Township!" instead of "Wonder Rat!". One Season 1 episode also featured a long round as the players immediately found the Hollywood Bowl, but failed repeatedly to find the Warrant or Double Trouble. This caused Rockapella's enthusiasm over the reveal of the Hollywood Bowl to wane after several turns, ultimately just deadpanning "the Bowl" by the time the round ended. Additionally, there would sometimes be a silly phrase sung (or spoken) to indicate shoeprints (nothing) behind that location at this time. For instance, one of the Rockapella singers, when a famous shopping district was one of the locations and housed nothing, would intone, "Attention (district) shoppers!". *Rockapella also sang song parodies of, for example, "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music and "Surfin' USA" by The Beach Boys. Once, they were dressed like The Beatles singing a spoof of "Yesterday". After each parody, Greg would say "Rockapella, ladies and gentlemen!" *They also sang jingles for the crook, like for Eartha Brute, they would sing "Eartha Brute, HUH!", for Double Trouble, they would sing "Double Trouble (Trouble)", and for Patty Larceny, they would sing "P-P-P-Patty". In Seasons 1 and 2, Rockapella sang jingles more than 3 seconds long when the dossiers were revealed. This practice was abandoned in Season 3 for some reason, and because of this, Sarah Nade's jingle only lasted less than 3 seconds. *The phrase "Whoo-whoo!" was sung when the Chief is about to get ready to read the title in seasons 3-5. In Season 5, when a caper is committed Rockapella will sing a quick phrase, such as: "Oh, no!", "Crime!", "Oh!", and "Whoo!'" *Another time, when a Gumshoe (Melissa Fernandez) picked the Yi River, the singers replied with "Yi!", causing Greg Lee to burst out laughing. Another memorable event happened when a contestant picked the Batman Bridge, one of the Rockapella members made sound effects referenced to the 60s Batman TV series, which also got laughs from the audience. Also, in one episode, the board was setup with locations from Indianapolis, Indiana, which just happened to be Scott Leonard's hometown. With each pick of location, Rockapella sang out "Near Scott's house!". In yet another episode, the Gumshoes went to Peru and when one location was turned around, Rockapella sang "Elliott's been there!" Also, when another location was turned around, Rockapella sang a brief line to the tune of the show's theme song. Still another time, when the stolen landmark was the aforementioned French cave paintings, when the cave paintings were uncovered the third time, Barry Carl called out, "Gentlemen, dip your brushes!" Greg's response: "What!?" One time, when the Liemba Ferry from Zaire was stolen, when the loot was uncovered, Rockapella sang out a brief spoof of Chattanooga Choo Choo about that loot. Another episode, when the Isla de Carmen was stolen, Rockapella sang a brief bit of the theme song to "Gilligan's Island" and some quotes from the show. It also happened in "The Immigration Station Perpetration", when Double Trouble stole Ellis Island, only more of the theme was sung, as well as "The Loot!", after a long time. In "Fugone But Not Forgotten", the second round took place in New Jersey and a Gumshoe picked Lucy the Elephant, which failed to fully flip over as Rockapella made elephant noises before singing "Low budget!" as an apology. Greg reminds the audience that it's "Viewers Like You" that keeps the show on the air every week. In the Season 5 episode "White Out", when a Gumshoe picked "Baldy Mountain" during Round 2, Rockapella sung "Greg's been there." Greg laughed and jokingly replied that Rockapella would not be coming back next season. Ironically, neither would Greg, as the show ended after Season 5 and was retooled into Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? in which the Chief was the only returning character. Category:Carmen Sandiego